IRS under siege with no friends

The IRS doesn’t have many friends on a good day. By Friday evening, the agency seemed to have none at all.

A steady stream of criticism directed at the IRS in recent weeks exploded with the disclosure that the agency targeted about 75 conservative groups for extra review because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their tax documents.

The revelation fuels Republican fears that the agency is targeting the administration’s political enemies. It also hands the GOP a fresh issue to use in attacking President Barack Obama’s administration at the same time they are stepping up their criticism of the way it handled the attack in Benghazi.

The reach of the IRS is so broad that the damage to the agency’s reputation could touch everything from its oversight of rapidly expanding nonprofit groups to the implementation of the health care law.

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, immediately tied the IRS admission to some of the worst instances of government overreach, including Watergate.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) will convene a hearing on the matter in the coming weeks. Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) will do the same.

“The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable,” Issa said. “The committee will aggressively follow up … and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”

McConnell said “an apology won’t put this issue to rest.”

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and tea party favorite, said he was “offended” by the IRS’s actions.

“Government should never be used to bully people,” he said.

Democrats didn’t lift a finger in defense of the agency, which is implementing some of the party’s top policy priorities like the health care overhaul.

It’s “clearly stated from the leadership of the IRS that this is inappropriate and unacceptable behavior and we concur with that,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Even Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who pressed the IRS in 2010 to review the political activities of nonprofits, expressed outrage.

“We shouldn’t rush to judgment,” the Montana Democrat said. “But targeting groups based solely on their political views is not only inappropriate, it is intolerable.”

The hits will keep coming next week when the agency’s watchdog — the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration — releases a report on its investigation into the matter.

The IRS has never been the most popular rung in the federal bureaucracy, but several missteps and controversies in recent months left many in Congress fuming ahead of Friday’s announcement.

The American Civil Liberties Union released documents in April showing that investigators in the IRS criminal tax division believed the agency could access emails and text messages without a warrant. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, demanded answers from acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller on how many emails were accessed and why.